This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-55025, filed on Aug. 8, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door apparatus of a disc drive. More particularly, the present invention is related to a door opening/closing apparatus of an optical disc drive that solves an eccentricity problem of a door by configuring the door as split type doors.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a disc drive is an apparatus which is capable of reading information from or recording information onto a disc-shaped medium such as a compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), or the like. Such a disc drive has a tray which is moved typically into and out of a main body of the disc drive in a sliding manner so as to load or unload a disc from the disc drive. A front panel having a doorway through which the tray can move into or out of the main body and a door apparatus for opening or closing the doorway is installed at the front side of the main body. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a door 16 is attached to the front portion of a tray 12 moves integrally with the tray 12.
In the above structure, when the tray 12 is loaded in the main body 10, the door 16 simultaneously covers the opening of the front panel 14 as shown in FIG. 1A. In addition, when the tray 12 slides out of the main body 10 to be loaded with a disc as shown in FIG. 1B, the opening to the front panel 14 is uncovered at the same time as the door 16 opens and the tray 12 slides out of the main body 10.
In the above disc drive door apparatus, when the tray 12 moves outside the main body 10, the additional weight of the attached door causes the opened tray to decline, thereby placing the tray in an eccentric state. In addition, when the door 16 is designed to have a greater size, a user may be inconvenienced when loading a disc.
Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, a door apparatus of a disk drive includes a door 26 attached to a front panel 24 located on the front side of the main body, and a pair of levers 27 which allow the door 26 to pivot. One end of the lever 27 is attached to a surface of the door 26 so that the lever 27 can be an integral part of the door 26, and the other end of the lever 27 is installed at the front panel so that the lever 27 can pivot. A pivot shaft 28 is provided at the other end of the lever 27, and the pivot shaft 28 is coupled to the front panel 24 so that the door 26 can pivot like a hinged door. In addition, a spring (not shown) is inserted around the pivot shaft 28 so that the elastic force of the spring is applied to the door 26 so the door will close against the front panel 24.
In the configuration shown in FIG. 2A, when the tray 22 is loaded in the main body 20, the door 26 is closed against the front panel 24 due to the elastic force of the spring inserted around the pivot shaft 28 of the lever 27. In addition, when the tray 22 begins to slide out of the main body 20 to be loaded with a disc, the tray 22 pushes the inner surface of the door 26 with a force stronger than the elastic force of the spring and pushes open the door 26, as shown in FIG. 2B.
In the above disc drive door apparatus, there is a problem in which the door 26 and the tray 22 may become bent, or due to high temperatures, become deformed, and interfere with each other causing a malfunction during the opening of the door.